Grimmauld Place/Entailment

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 75500

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "o_caipora" <o_caipora at y...> 
wrote:

> The house is almost certainly "entailed": some old Black's will 
left 
> it, on condition that it not leave the family. The usual conditions 
> are that it go to the closest male relative by blood. The Blacks 
may 
> have insisted on closest "pure blood". 
> 
> Despite Sirius's mother's dislike for him, he inherited the house. 
> His mother wiped him from the tapestry. That she did not disinherit 
> him may mean she could not. 
> 
> He would probably have inherited on his father's death. His mother 
> continued there because a) Sirius didn't want to live at Grimmauld 
> place and b) other lodgings were being provided for him at 
Government 
> expense. 
> 
> Entailment is popular in Victorian novels, where distant cousins 
are 
> always inheriting, or distant uncles dying and leaving fortunes. In 
> the prologue to the Canterbury tales, the Sergeant of the Law is 
> skilled in getting property out from under such restrictions. It's 
> old, in life and in books.
> 
> Sirius is the "last of the Blacks." His brother is dead. For 
cousins 
> the tapestry shows Bellatrix, [Andromeda], and Narcissa, probably 
in 
> order of age and therefore precedence.
> 
> The tapestry shows no descendants, male or otherwise, for 
Bellatrix, 
> who might in any event be disbarred from inheriting from Sirius 
> because she killed him.
> 
> No children are mentioned for Andromeda, but marrying a Muggle-born 
> may have disqualified her heirs under the entailment. After 
> all, "Always Pure" is embroidered at the at the top of the family 
> tree tapestry.
> 
> A real-world example is that when the grandson of the last emperor 
of 
> Brazil married not a princess but a simple countess, his mother 
> Princess Isabel made him sign a document abdicating all right to 
the 
> throne for him and all his descendents. If real royalty can insist 
on 
> royal blood to inherit, "almost royal" Blacks can certainly insist 
on 
> pure blood.  
> 
> That leaves Narcissa, who has one male descendant, Draco Malfoy. 
> 
> Draco inherits.
> 
>  - Caipora


I like this entailment business.  It never made sense to me that Mrs. 
Black would have left the hallowed halls of the Black house to her 
despised son if there was some way she could avoid that. 

Question: Entailment takes precedence over the wills that individuals 
make, doesnt' it? Correct me if I'm wrong. If that's the case, then 
even if Sirius left a will, he is prevented by entailment from 
bequeathing the house to anyone. It would automatically go to the 
closest male relative.

The still-unanswered question to any inheritance is proof of death.  
Does the Wizard World require some sort of death certificate or other 
proof that the owner of the property in question is indeed dead, 
especially, since in Sirius' case, there is no body?

IIRC, in the articles that Hermione was reading in the Daily Prophet 
after the events in the MoM, no mention was made of Sirius' death or 
that he had even been at the MoM.  We have no canon proof that 
anyone, other than the people who saw what happened, know he's dead.  
Sure, Dumbledore could have explained everything to Fudge, but, why 
would Dumbledore's say-so be considered legally binding so that the 
powers-that-be would move ahead and dispose of Sirius' property?

Now, I'm sure Bellatrix can get word to Narcissa that Sirius is dead, 
and thus, as explained in Caipora's post, Draco inherits.  But, 
again, how does Narcissa prove that Sirius is dead?  


Marianne